Anyone good with AE subnetworks?

[kris449]

Playing FTB Infinity Evolved.

I have searched the internet and honestly can't find any coherent description of how subnetworks work or what constitutes a subnetwork, so if anyone can give advice, it'd be really helpful.

Anyway what I was specifically wondering was how to set up such a thing for my bees, their products are really starting to clog up my main network and that's with keeping most of the bees/combs themselves out in separate chests in the world. I made a separate mini network for them but I wondered if there's a way to integrate them without having them on the same storage. I want to be able to process combs and autocraft with the parts as well, plus possibly setting up alvearies and automating them in the future. Any suggestions?

 

[KingTriaxx]

A subnet is either a seperate network which does not share data with the main network, (but can still be powered by connecting a Glass Fibre Cable which will only transfer power, not a channel), or a second network with either it's own controller, or no controller but fewer than eight channels.

To allow crafting without storage interference, place down an interface on the bee network, then a storage bus facing that, which will connect to the main network, and set it to read only. Now it can see and access the entire network, but will not attempt to store there. And since the Bee network can't see the main network, it can't store them there.

 

[kris449]

A subnet is either a seperate network which does not share data with the main network, (but can still be powered by connecting a Glass Fibre Cable which will only transfer power, not a channel), or a second network with either it's own controller, or no controller but fewer than eight channels.

To allow crafting without storage interference, place down an interface on the bee network, then a storage bus facing that, which will connect to the main network, and set it to read only. Now it can see and access the entire network, but will not attempt to store there. And since the Bee network can't see the main network, it can't store them there.

I think I understand what you're saying. It's basically a mini-network which can interact with the main network but only on a one-way connection? (also I think you mean quartz fiber )

 

[Dentvar]

You got it.
You basically have to understand the two cominations that there are:
Alyways having the point of view coming from your network:

Interaface on Storage:
Will let your main storage send and get items from the subnetwork. But can´t request them from there.

Storage on Interface:
Can access the Subnetwork as it would be a Storage Unit. (Drawer,Barrel,chest,etc).

I learned about this best by 1. tinkering around a lot because my head exploded several times trying to get were I now am.. (not understanding this fully) and 2. by googeling "super soaryn drive".
Try to setup a storage walls with Drawers for example in a creative world to understand this. It is made out of alot of subnetworks conecting to each other. Once you understand this, you will have no more problems with the ae2 chanel system what so ever

 

[kris449]

You got it.
You basically have to understand the two cominations that there are:
Alyways having the point of view coming from your network:

Interaface on Storage:
Will let your main storage send and get items from the subnetwork. But can´t request them from there.

Storage on Interface:
Can access the Subnetwork as it would be a Storage Unit. (Drawer,Barrel,chest,etc).

I learned about this best by 1. tinkering around a lot because my head exploded several times trying to get were I now am.. (not understanding this fully) and 2. by googeling "super soaryn drive".
Try to setup a storage walls with Drawers for example in a creative world to understand this. It is made out of alot of subnetworks conecting to each other. Once you understand this, you will have no more problems with the ae2 chanel system what so ever

Haha, I've seen screenshots of the soaryn drive but I didn't even want to try something like that without having any idea what the heck I was doing. I also tinkered around a bit but my experimenting was mainly setting up random network parts and then linking them with a quartz fibre to see if they'd work.. they usually don't. Anyway thanks!

 

[KingTriaxx]

SSD is a laggy beast. And largely unnecessary unless you're attempting to store the 'Sum Total of EVERYTHING'.

 

[kris449]

SSD is a laggy beast. And largely unnecessary unless you're attempting to store the 'Sum Total of EVERYTHING'.

Yeah I don't think I'll ever need that many items to want to use it lol.

 

[Dentvar]

Not saying that SSD(yes the fast HDD right? ) is what you should build, but I found it helpfull too understand subnetworking.

 

[Inaeo]

Keep in mind that color coding your wiring for subnetwork can help immensely when troubleshooting and/or updating things. It also makes it possible to have a second terminal showing only what resides in the subnetwork next to your main terminal.

 

[malicious_bloke]

Keep in mind that color coding your wiring for subnetwork can help immensely when troubleshooting and/or updating things. It also makes it possible to have a second terminal showing only what resides in the subnetwork next to your main terminal.

This. Although lategame, if you aren't using quantum singularities to spread your operations out to more dimensions, you'll end up with so much cabling that no amount of tidiness or careful colour coding will save you.

I tend to just colour code the dense cables coming off my ME controller so I can tell easily where I'm P2Ping my channels to.

But! Relevance to OP. More Colin, less tangent etc.

You can chain a bunch of Storage Bus -> ME Interface combos together to create a series of independent but mutually visible networks, each with 6 usable channels.

This works great for mass storage, but for my tastes it gets a little restrictive on what you can do with other machines. Unless of course you use those channels to run P2P connectors and bring through 32 * 6 channels direct from the ME controller, which kind of defeats the point of subnetting :3

If you're going to do it I'd say use Industrial Apiaries from Gendustry, as they have an upgrade that automatically re-breeds princesses and drones, so you just need to use a single import bus per apiary to remove produce and excess drones.

 

[KingTriaxx]

I actually find that running all my P2P channels as a subnet works best. Item P2P's are run on the black cable subnet, Power P2P's on Red Cable, and Fluid's on Blue Cable. That's got two purposes: One, if I rewire my main network, I can leave my P2P connections alone, and not have to try and remember what cable they're running through.

I also never play with AE2 without Computer Craft and each P2P connection gets a list on a tablet of Input>and all outputs. So I know the XYZ 1,52,67 input is Items, and connects to three different outputs and their connections. That way I have a list if something happens and I lose the connection at each end. Just call the programs P2P and the XYZ co-ordinates, so you can stand there and work out where the connection was from that.

If you don't have Gendustry, but do have EnderIO, you can stick a conduit on the Apiary, set it to In/Out mode, and then turn on self-feed and it will produce bees forever. A second conduit filtered for combs only will complete the automation, just don't connect the two.

 

[GreenZombie]

I think I understand what you're saying. It's basically a mini-network which can interact with the main network but only on a one-way connection? (also I think you mean quartz fiber )

To properly understand subnetworks you have to understand there is no such thing. AE does not know about a main network or sub networks. All it knows about is networks.

But, there are a number of ways that you can connect two networks such that they remain separate networks (With their own controllers or channel limits) but act together in an interesting way. If you assign one of these networks the role of "primary" or "main" network, then the other networks that are connected could be considered sub networks. But this is an aid to your base planning, not an inherent part of ME:

You can connect two networks via:
* a piece of quartz fiber: This will allow the networks to share power (AE).
* via interface-to-interface connections: This will allow the networks to see each others storage .
* P2P tunnels: this allows you to pipe up to 32 channels (and power) of some other network, using a single channel through a carrier network.

Note: By interface to interface: I mean in the general sense too: so storage bus to interface, export bus to interface etc.

 

[kris449]

I actually find that running all my P2P channels as a subnet works best. Item P2P's are run on the black cable subnet, Power P2P's on Red Cable, and Fluid's on Blue Cable. That's got two purposes: One, if I rewire my main network, I can leave my P2P connections alone, and not have to try and remember what cable they're running through.

Could you possibly post a screenshot of how you wire your P2Ps on a subnet? I'd like to see how that's done.

Thanks all for the great responses It makes a lot more sense to me now.

 

[KingTriaxx]

I will have to wire one up, but it won't be too difficult. (Lost the last world in which I had done it. )

 

[rhn]

Could you possibly post a screenshot of how you wire your P2Ps on a subnet? I'd like to see how that's done.

Thanks all for the great responses It makes a lot more sense to me now.

I feel the need to point out that the channel saving P2P thing is not technically a subnet. It is one big network where you just exploit the P2P mechanic(designed for tunnelling actual subnets through) to tunnel your regular wires through.

 

[KingTriaxx]

Depends on how you define your main and subnets. For me, no Subnet has any AE based auto-crafting. You could also call it a P2P network, or secondary network. The idea is the same.

Rhn's right. It's not channel saving. But it does make life easier for organizational purposes. It just shunts the channel load off the main network. So you've still got the full suite of channels from the primary network.

Very basic setup, but it should give you the idea. Basically one network handling all the p2p channels, and one handling the non-p2p system. Along with Items, Fluids, and Energy on other networks. It's also not the clearest screenshot in the world, but it's one of the things you'll get a feel for once you play with it some.

 

[GreenZombie]

Could you possibly post a screenshot of how you wire your P2Ps on a subnet? I'd like to see how that's done.

Thanks all for the great responses It makes a lot more sense to me now.

Here I have 3 AE networks:
* The black network is my backbone network. I've given it its own power and controller, and in addition to other networks, I show how it can also use channels to carry to carry items, fluids, RF and redstone (only half set those up - there would have to be matching P2P interfaces to carry the stuff out elsewhere on the backbone).
* The yellow network consists of an interface (receiving power from a power cell), and a ME storage chest. Note that the storage chest side of the yellow network is powered.
* And, a blue network placeholder.

Now, you might think that yellow automatically links to yellow, and blue to blue. This is not the case: To glue this all up, you need to make a Memory Card. Simply Shift-Click with the memory card held in your hand, on any P2P interface to record it, and then simply right click with it on one OR MORE other P2P interfaces to link them all to the original interface.

 

[KingTriaxx]

He managed a much clearer picture than I did. And better explanation. The only difference is that I use specifically colored cables depending on the p2p tunnels that'll be connected to them, rather than the single black back bone, just for organizational purposes.

 

[kris449]

The main difference I'm seeing is that Triaxx used two controllers while zombie only has one. For some reason I thought controllers couldn't be "linked" to each other in any way unless they were part of a multiblock, which is why I couldn't visualize a P2P-managing subnet where only one was used.

 

[rhn]

This is the P2P channel exploit:

Non of this is a subnet. It is one big network. Purpose of this is to avoid running several different Dense Cables around your base and just use one(white) as carrier. AFAIK this was not an intended feature, but it quickly gained popularity among people who did not like the added Channel mechanic.


This is sub-network'ing:

Here there are two separate networks with each their controller and storage. Purpose is to separate items/processes/whatever from each other. Useful for setting up ore processing(ore/dusts stay in subnetwork and can allow storing ore/dust in main network without it being processed), bee handling(no junk drones and combs in the main network), hazardous materials(Uranium processing: no radioactive items in main network) etc.
You can make the networks interact with each other with the Storage Bus from one network on a Interface from the other. This can allow a subnetwork to pull items from or store items in(depending on programming on the Storage Bus) the other network.
Using the P2P tunnel here is not a required for the sub-network. It can be used if you have a subnetwork that you use in different corners of your base, have a "main" network running the distance and don't want to run another cable all the way there. This is the original intended purpose of the P2P ME tunnels.


You can create a mix of the two, having a separate carrier network and then using that to tunnel your main network through. But I don't really see any benefit to doing that.